Removable, transportable memory is an increasingly popular way to store data such as text, images, program code and the like on peripheral devices, such as those used in connection with computers, other electrical and electronic apparatus, and the like, and to transport data from one device to another. Exemplary devices that can use transportable memory include a variety of portable electronic devices, such as digital still cameras, digital movie cameras, personal digital assistant (PDAs), printers, portable digital audio players (e.g., mpeg and mp3 player), electronic devices to play movies, cell phones, home phones, car audio devices, home audio devices, game devices such as video game players, and less portable devices such as computers, printers, telephones, household appliances, and so forth. As but one example, in the field of digital photography, a digital camera is used to take a picture, and the data representing the image is stored in a memory device. The data stored in such a camera memory device usually is transferred to a computer or to a printer for viewing, editing and/or printing of the picture that had been taken by the digital camera. Data transfer is typically accomplished by creating a data connection between devices, or by physical transportation of a removable memory from one device to another device. Many different types of removable memory devices are available currently, many of which are incompatible with each other. Removable memory is referred to by a variety of names such as “digital media”, “digital media cards”, “flash memory cards”, as well as others. Several exemplary memory devices currently existing are those referred to as Smart Media Card, MultiMedia Card, Memory Stick, D-picture Card (sometimes referred to as xD-picture Card) and Compact Flash. In general, these devices implement a quantity of non-volatile memory such as Flash EEPROM memory as well as the circuitry, logic, and physical interconnections necessary to read and write data. Even though these various memory cards perform essentially the same function, because of the variety of implementations, a memory card that operates in one device is often physically and/or electrically incompatible with another device.
The physical dimensions of the aforementioned respective memory devices are different. Removable media is generally card-shaped in that it is notably thinner in one dimension as compared to the other two dimensions. Typically these cards have at least one dimension that is several times, e.g., ten times, smaller than either of the other dimensions which creates a distinct, card like appearance. However, this arrangement is difficult to manufacture and leads to breakage due to bending. Also, the variation in physical dimensions prevents exchange of digital memory between devices. For example, the Smart Media Card is wider and thinner than the MultiMedia Card. As a result, a device with a port that accepts a specific type of memory device is unable to accept any other type of memory device in that port. For example, a device that has a port that accepts a Memory Stick is unable to accept a Smart Media Card. In addition, the electrical interfaces to these different cards usually are different.
Personal computers usually do not come with any built in ports for directly receiving a memory device such as those mentioned above. Therefore, such memory devices usually cannot be plugged directly into the majority of personal computers. Hence, to interface a computer with the memory device (e.g., to store data in or to retrieve data from the memory device), a special adapter that is designed to accept a particular memory device is used. Such an adapter usually includes an electrical cable and an electrical connector that may be plugged into (connected to) a standard port on the computer. These adapters are sold separately from the personal computer and usually plug into a USB port or a serial port on the personal computer. An adapter may support multiple types of memory devices, but it usually does not support all types of memory devices that are available, and new memory devices will generally not be compatible with previously built adapters. Thus, one problem with the need to use these adapters is that the user may not have the correct adapter readily available in order to access his own specific memory device. For example, a user may want to access a Smart Media Card, but he may have an adapter that only accepts a Memory Stick.
The connector arrangement used in such adapters sometimes is referred to as a termination or as an electrical termination or similar nomenclature; the combination of connector and cable sometimes is referred to as a cable termination assembly or similar nomenclature. The form factor for such connectors and/or of the housing thereof typically is a standard shape or at least the shapes are reasonably standardized to allow the connector to plug into a standard socket or port of a computer or of a peripheral device, such as a printer, external disc drive, etc., and, for example, to provide for connections to the cable to which it is attached or to a circuit board on which it is mounted. Although the shape of such connectors for connection to a computer and, thus, the form factor of such connectors at the computer connection end and/or peripheral device connection end may have been somewhat standardized, the connections made by the mentioned adapters to memory devices clearly have not been standardized, as different sizes, shapes and electrical and mechanical connection arrangements are specially designed to accommodate the respective memory devices, such as those mentioned above.
Data as used herein is defined as anything such as program code, information, or signals that may be stored or retrieved from a memory device. The data may be in digital form or in some other form. Examples of data are pictures taken from digital still cameras, movies from digital video cameras, songs downloaded from CDs, from mp3 players, or from the internet, spreadsheets from an Excel spreadsheet or a Quattro spreadsheet, databases, computer games, documents from a word processing software, and saved emails from Outlook software, as well as any other information able to be stored in a memory device.
The physical size of the actual storage medium of the previously mentioned memory devices usually is small, but in order effectively to use the storage medium, the packaging of the memory device is relatively large and bulky compared to the size of the storage medium. In addition, the adapters necessary to connect the memory device to a personal computer are relatively large and bulky and are a hassle to carry if the user is frequently mobile. For example, a tourist taking pictures of scenic places with a digital camera and carrying his laptop in order to view those pictures would also have to carry the adapter in order to view those pictures on the laptop. Forgetting to bring the adapter or bringing the wrong adapter clearly is a problem. There are USB memory devices, which are intended to be an external memory for transporting data between two computing devices, but they are large enough that they cannot reasonably be contained largely within the peripheral.